The system of public relations (Public Relations) is now on everyone's lips. Foreign and domestic policy of the state, election campaigns, "factory of stars", physiology of popularity, effective work with the press, secrets of formation of public opinion, image-making, commercial, as well as social and political advertising - and this is not the whole spectrum of Public Relations a kind of formula of popularity. Among the above tasks of PR in this work, the main attention will be paid to image-making as one of the pressing problems of the public and economic life of modern Russia. No one knows the full amount of money spent on forming the image of a public campaign, personality or company. But these costs are justified by the negative effect of the spontaneous formation of the image. Purposeful, thoughtful creation of the image leads, on the contrary, to a positive result.
In the West, image-making research has become more widespread. It would be wrong to say that they were not conducted in our country at all, but they were narrowly ideologically oriented and were closed to the public.
The development of the market economy has led to an increase in the categories of subjects interested in the correct and effective formation of their image. At the same time, the schemes developed by the West to solve such problems do not fully correspond to the living conditions of the post-Soviet society.
Today, the market does not lack the volume of translated literature on Public Relations and, in particular, the formation of an image. However, in the opinion of our specialists, the literal tracing from these publications needs to be processed and adapted to the peculiarities of perception and stereotypes of Russian society. For these reasons, this work mainly uses materials from Russian publications. However, since there is no complete image-making theory, there is often no other way out but to refer to basic knowledge in the field of human psychology.
In the XIX century, the inhabitants of North Carolina (USA), mastering new living spaces, chose the appropriate motto: "To be, not to seem! ”. In 1970, French models united under the slogan: "To seem to be! ”. The last slogan also makes sense. When?
Under equal conditions of expenses (money, nerves, time), a respected client buys something or votes for the one who is "most pleasant" to him.
The purpose of image-making events is off-price competition aimed at forming a controlled image of goods and/or services, the company itself, personality, fashion, ideology, etc.
As a rule, these activities do not consist of the individual (perceived by Clients as random), but rather of a system of mutually agreed actions aimed at Clients, potential clients, partners of the firm and the authorities. Thus, the activities to form an image for the team of stand makers at a major exhibition number 15-20, and the middle hand of the insurance company 30-50 moves, and the scenario of choosing a deputy of the State Duma all 60.
Such a huge number of actions is conditioned by the main goals of Public Relations events as a system that includes image-making.
Next, we will consider the main objectives of Public Relations and their correlation with the formation of the image.
According to Vikentieva I. L., PR activities have 5 main objectives:
- The positioning of the object;
- Image enhancement;
- Anti-advertising (or image reduction);
- The adjustment from competitors;
- Counter-advertising.
Other numerous tasks: forecasting crises, studying public opinion, the creation of a common corporate identity and corporate standards, the study of the effectiveness of actions, work with staff and even psychotherapy of management and partners are always subordinate, subsystems formulated above tasks. Image formation includes elements of all the above tasks of Public Relations, but most fully meet the objectives of image-making.
Positioning. (from the English position - position, location, state, position, etc.) - is to create and maintain (reproduce) a clear image; to explain to Clients the existing problems.
Is it possible for a large firm not to form an image and "notice this problem under the carpet"? It is possible, but in this case, it will be formed by the same Clients and Partners spontaneously, and therefore uncontrollable. Therefore, the PR professionals are not in opposition: to have - not to have an image, but in pairs: a spontaneous or managed image...
Let's add to it that in the brain of any person there are only a few centres of pleasure and at least dozens - dissatisfaction and anxiety. It is thanks to their abundance that man was able to avoid trouble and survive in the process of evolution. But the downside of the prevalence of negative centres is that when we see the new, incomprehensible, "unpositioned", we are more inclined to be "against" than "for" it.
to be continued in the next part